INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Birdylady3]

Nite to all you hootie owls out there

 

[Mother2Hens]

I was thinking about putting some chicken wire over the box. That way the other hens can't get in either, I think they kick her out sometimes. There's already a curtain over the boxes.

Bonbon (my avatar) started out being broody in a nesting box and things were fine for a week. Then my BR decided she wanted to use the box Bonbon was in, and the scuffle resulted in a broken hatching egg. I put Bonbon in a small converted rabbit hutch coop, but if your broody doesn't want to move-- you and CCCHICKENS have good ideas to make a chicken wire or screen cover. I tried to think of ideas using something you may have or using inexpensive solutions and then I decided to show photos. That's one reason I am behind on the thread . . . something will interest me and I decide to brainstorm and research for fun, and the next thing I know, it's late.

That led to . . .

INTERESTING SITE ~ Materials and Ideas that can be used for Poultry & other Livestock
Shade and Wind screen fabric, Drainage Solutions, Recycling, etc.
This doesn't look like a "bargain" site (and the graphic design of their site is terrible), but it has lots of materials and interesting ideas that may inspire our inventive, creative, and resourceful thread members. The Natural Home Building Source

Definitely a site for @racinchickins if he hasn't seen it already.

This is the section I looked at about netting. It reminded me of members' discussions about the need for shaded areas and for wind protection. It shows photos of different ways to use fabric in panels or attaching it to existing fencing. It comes in a range of weave densities.


Custom Shade Panels - The Natural Home Building Source

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

So another crazy question. Can chickens carry lethal genes. I have been mating my white crested polish rooster with a polish/bantam cross hen. I do not know their linage because I bought them at an auction. My problem is that although almost all the eggs hatch and seem to do okay, they are starting to die off. I have other mutt chickens that are bigger in size that seem to be doing fine, but these smaller ones keep dieing. Could there be something in the genes of the parents that is causing this. Yesterday they all seemed fine. No pasty butt or anything, this morning 2 were dead, in different brooders and different ages. What could cause this? I have never hatched any eggs until June. I hatched 5 silkies and they are all doing great, it's just these polish crosses that I am having trouble with. Any suggestions or comments?

I am finding polish seem less hardy, similar problems. I now keep them separate from other breeds and they do much better. I have a polish chick in with my broody OEG bantam, and its thriving wonderfully well, at about 2 weeks old.

Our coop/shed entry door is about 5 inches above ground level, so I had nailed together a few treated 2x10s cut on an angle as a ramp. That worked great for awhile, but the treated wood gets slick when it rains, and the lawn tractor dislodges the ramp pieces when I mow the grass, etc. We decided to do something more permanent.
Somehow, the words 'more permanent' mean more expensive and more work for me.

We purchased a tumbled stone circle kit from Menard's. 'Kit' is deceiving, because it doesn't include removing the sod, digging down, getting a truck load of gravel, manually tamping it down, getting a truck load of sand, tamping that down, then the HOURS it takes to figure out the 'map' of how to assemble the circle, nor the cost of polymeric sand.

We put half of the circle at the entry gate to the back yard, and are putting the other half as the entry to the shed. The gate assembly went pretty well. It was mostly manual efforts and turned out nicely.


This past weekend, I began the shed ramp. I formed a sloping semi-circle, and poured a sloping concrete ramp. It took 3 trips to Lowe's (I'm very poor at estimating how much one bag of concrete makes), and the loading, unloading of nine 80-lbs bags of concrete. This is a task more suited for a 20-yr old.
Next, I will adhere the pavers to the ramp, and put polymeric sand in the joints. I'm hoping the weather cooperates for the last part of this.

If you plan to do a circle kit, I highly recommend you consider hiring it out. It's way more manual labor than what one would think.

It looks fantastic! I can imagine the sore back doing it too.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Got to do some catching up again cause I spent the whole afternoon into evening at the ER. I have a broken leg 4 dead LF, 2 injured Silkies and 4 total Silkies with feathers glued to them by dog slobber.
When I went out to spend some time with my critters yesterday I saw a strange dog was in my pasture attacking my range chickens. I went running broom in hand ( they can do some damage when swang right ) I was chasing the dog trying to get him out of my pasture when he turned the wrong way and headed towards goat pasture. He ducked under the picnic table, I went to kick him and missed and hit the bench instead. Broke my leg! Went down crying. Just then DS was coming back from taking the LGD's to get their yearly's. At that point all he saw was a dog attacking me. So he turned the LGD's loose. I wont go into that.
So DS gets me to the gazebo and starts the hunt for dead and or injured chickens. I cleaned the mauled and injured and DS started burying all the dead while I went to the ER.
I absolutely hate Mondays, and I had such a great week last week, guess you have to expect bad after good.
As of right now 1 of the injured Silkies is still just sitting around, I have her food and water and Suite cake close by. The others are ranging in the back yard. no more pasture ranging for them. While I was in the ER DS and DH found that the dog had chewed his way through the welded wire at the back of the horse pasture, JUST put it up a couple weeks ago, and the patched that and put up a new fence up separating the horses and the goats, now my LF can only range in the goat pasture, which is closer to the house and the LGD's. My LF girls and boys are not real happy about that either, they cant scratch around in the horse poo no more.
We found out who's dog it WAS cause 1 of the neighbors that knew the dog saw the whole show. The dog owner called the police and the showed up her bright and early. So me and my crutches had to take them out to where the Dog and my chickens were buried. I asked him if he wanted me to dig my chickens up, cause he was almost calling me a lair as to the reason the dog was dead, and was blaming my LGD's, wanting vacation records and all...... and EXCUSE me but MY PROPERTY is where this all took place not down the rd. I am the one down 4 hens, and maybe 1 Silkie ( ???)
Cops are just plain stupid now days!! The law is protecting the wrong and prosecuting the right. What is up with that.

Hope ya'll had a better start to the week then I did.

Oh my, I am so saddened to read this. I hope you mend quickly and I am so sorry for your loss. Stray dogs are the owners fault. That owner owes you for the loss of your birds. and IMO your medical bills due to his irresponsible behavior! I would be calling that officers' police chief demanding an explaination.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I'm from north west indiana..plan to breed sizzles, silkies, and silkie easter eggers and frizzle easter eggers...I'm currently looking for show quality silkies. I would love to get to know breeders and keepers in my area!! I don't know many people here, but would like to!
Here are my two silkies, 5 months.

Welcome to our thread!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Yesterday I had my first 1/2 dozen day. Very exciting! In the morning, I adjusted the coop and then nest boxes. I made the boxes a little darker and more sheltered, and eliminated all blind corners in the coop, and now they're using all of the nests. Yay!

I think the new hens are my three RIRs. I'm still waiting for the GCs and my one EE.

Fantastic! I finally have a NN (turken hen) laying, NICE sized dark brown egg. I think I want more turkens!

Quote: LOL please talk LGD all you want, I love to hear about them! I really want to add a Pyraneese, they seem most likely to fit what we keep here. Have honestly considered another Rottweiller too. Collies really interest me also.. but a short coated.. so many choices and no time for a puppy right now.

MY TOMATOES ARE TEASING ME!!! Why is it nearly August and they're STILL GREEN?!?!?!

We have a volunteer grape tomato plant that has one cluster of 4 tasteless red tomatoes, the main patch is all GREEN! In atrueb00's picture of the cosmo and bee, I see a tomato teasing red. Does anybody have lots of red tomatoes yet?

The plants and fruit are doing great, but darn it-I'm ready for some red tomatoes!

UGH, yep, all green. I planted beefsteak and roma. My squash, corn, snap peas, cukes are doing great, already getting pumpkin... some melons. FYI geese and ducks think they like watermelon plants more than me

My Splash Silkie DITZY IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!

My DH woke me up at 6:30am -- he had gone out in our backyard beyond our fenced-in backyard, all the way to the end because he heard some crows crowing. Then he spotted Ditzy standing in the neighbors backyard! The have a picket style privacy fence, so she had slipped through. Besides wildlife, those neighbors have two large dogs that sometimes are out in the yard. Anyway, she wouldn't come to Jim, so I grabbed my blue Silkie, Smalty and some seeds and was able to coax her. I can't believe she is back!!!! We fixed the opening in our fence. I had been applying new chicken wire to the bottom of the wooden privacy fence, and a section with a small tree trunk had popped open.

Thank you for your support! It was comforting to know I had the thread to turn to last night when I was so distraught.

I am so glad she is ok!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Those of you that sell chickens or chicks regularly:
1 Do you accept checks?
2 If so do you add on a check fee?
3 What to you do or plan to do when you get a check that bounces?

I got my first bad check. it was only for $20 but it got me thinking. I have accepted a lot of checks. They tend to be a bit of a pain as I need to deposit them, wait for them to clear, then use the money. Cash is easier as I can pay for the fee directly with cash, no trip to the bank, no waiting for checks to clear. I was thinking if I still want to accept checks I need to add some kind of fee that covers my time and effort to deposit them. But I still have no idea what to do about the bad checks. It is clearly not worth taking tiny bounced checks to court. And I have no way to add a $20 bounced check fee like the big retail stores do.

I do cash or trade. I have traded pigs for tractors, turkey poults for hay, you name it

Checks, no way unless I know that person very well.

The square card reader is a simple way to take cards without the commitment of contacts and such. I use it and love it, so if you want to take cards, I would recommend it. Plus, if the card is denied, it tells you right away.

Wow, interesting! Do you have a link to share for it?

Quote: We are at the same point on things. I am getting more leery of selling from the house. I really prefer meeting someone for a craiglist sale off property altogether!
Its different IMO than swaps with our members here, you just don't know anything about someone on craigslist. Some of us do sales on there, but I have had a couple of buyers that really creeped me out.
And, taking a bird back after being raised elsewhere for a few months too is a case by case deal.. I want to know how they manage the flock it was in.
I do quarantine in most cases, some exceptions are people that we swap/trade often or I know how they keep their birds.

I was able to get some pictures of my animals yesterday and decided i'd share some. Sorry there are so many

My new dog Thatcher. He is so sweet and guards all the chickens.

Mama my chicken watching cat.
.
Mr. Darcy the lovely lavender orpington roo (he is learning to crow).

My adorable little chocolate orpington bantams, junior and midge.

Pixie, my golden comet.

Elwood my brainless buff orpington roo.

Sheroo, my barred plymouth rock, (We were not sure if he was a boy or girl when he was little) is the best roo on the planet. He is so sweet!
Cecilia, my curious rhode island red.

I know this is not a chicken lol but just thought i'd share it. Yesterday, i sat under our humming bird feeders for about 30 minutes taking pics of them. It wasn't the easiest task because the chickens were trying to peck my arms off and the lens of the camera.

Joan jet black my jersey giant. She is the boss! This is one of the best pics I've ever gotten of her.

Mona, my sweet buff orpington.

Carmen, my bug catching pro easter egger.

One last pic of Thatcher being silly.

Thatcher is a DOLL! And thanks so much for sharing your lovely flock!
I am a fanatic over hummingbirds

Afternoon everyone!

I got some serious catching up to do! It's rain here.....Again

We have been lucky, but I am with you. I want some summer and have had enough rain!!! I don't mind hot!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:

No, I sure miss them both.

Quote:

OHMYGOSH oldsalt reincarnation

Quote:

Quote: I think homeschooling is absolutely awesome! Its changed so much from 25-30 years ago. Much more doable now! Its hard if both parents work full time, or a parent is "absent" in my case with my oldest DD.
I wanted very much to home school my oldest. She had the social interaction through PS, but I feel like she would have done much better with a lot more help from her school. Without blaming certain school systems, and being shy, very young and ignorant myself.. She deserved a better education and I failed to make it happen for her as a grade school student. I did encourage Scouting and 4H activities and became a leader/helper as well. She played softball, soccer etc...Parents that get involved teach their kids to be social too.

My youngest is 10 years younger, I knew better, and was not afraid to make myself heard if I felt she needed more guidance or help with a subject. We lived in a more motivated school district and she excelled. This one did not take any interest in extracurricular activities, period. And she is constantly going, gabbing, chatting and socializing now, go figure

Each child is so different. Parents taking an interest in day to day activity, and education will help any child the most IMO.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

My micro pig is giving birth right now and I'm stoked! She's got 6 out so far.

OH my how precious!! Good luck to you!!

I agree. Education is important. You can't get a job without that piece of

paper that said you went to high school. Believe me, I know. I didn't finish middle school and didn't get to go to high school. Am trying to get my G.E.D. but kinda hard without the money to get a tutor.

Hang in there! Don't give up, getting it will change so many things for you

Quote:
Awesome post! Thanks for sharing the link!

Would you guys mind checking out my vid? I know its not about chickens, but it would mean alot to me. Also any tips on how I can make this better is appreciated

Forgot to put the link in the 1st time

And fix the grammar

I liked it very much! I am no good with pictures and video, hope someone with better knowledge can help.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Only 11 pages behind and falling asleep.. nite guys